No conservation program has had a greater positive impact on wildlife than the North American Model, and hunting is vital to its undeniable success.

This model has been not only instrumental to saving a great many species of wildlife, its guiding principles have been spectacularly successful in re-establishing and growing wildlife populations to levels previously thought impossible.

The North American Model and its history are things every single hunter should commit to memory, especially in this day and age when anti-hunting forces are more vocal and more threatening than ever.

I believe that the astounding success of the North American Model in saving so many species and so much habitat, is one of our strongest cornerstone arguments in defeating the destructive onslaught to wildlife that is the logical outcome of the anti-hunting movement.

Allocation of Wildlife by Law – Democratic Rule of Law in regulating proper use of wildlife resources

Wildlife Should Only be Killed for a Legitimate Purpose/Non-Frivolous Use – Ethics

Wildlife is Considered an International Resource

Science is the Proper Tool for Discharge of Wildlife Policy

Democracy of Hunting

There is some conflation of these principles in the video and an omission altogether of the seventh principle, Democracy of Hunting, as it is presented in the Boone and Crockett Club manual on the subject. Please go to the B&C manual link and read the short section (p.23) on this principle. It’s important.

Mahoney tangentially addresses this necessary hunting principle in his closing declaration, and it’s a good one. The suggestion that wildlife would be served best by a complete abdication of human involvement is a common argument made over and over again by anti-hunters today. It’s a ill-conceived, impractical and dangerous notion. That is, it is dangerous to wildlife.

But again, the take away from this presentation is that North America wildlife has benefited tremendously from the implementation of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, a hunter-initiated, hunter-driven and hunter-sustained effort.

It’s also worth noting that the North American Model has also been adopted by some African countries to great effect in saving once-dwindling wildlife populations. Namibia is one fine example of such success.

Every hunter should learn the tenets and successful history of this model. We should also be prepared to use that knowledge to educate those who may be ignorant of how effective it has been in ensuring existence and flourishing of many species of wildlife.

Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.